Travel Deals Australia

Updated on December 10, 2009

Which is the best type of holiday for you?

There’s a lot to think about when
planning a holiday. But whether you have enough money to visit the places you’d
most like to see has to be one of the prime considerations. Having made your
choice, it’s then pretty much a case of finding out how to get the most for
your money. If you’re like the majority of today’s holidaymakers, you’ll begin
your search via the Internet. The Web certainly gives you the ability to shop
from home. The downside is the amazing number of special offers out there at
any one time for pretty well every destination in the world. This Hub explores
how you can narrow the range of options by finding the sort of travel deal
that’s right for you.

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Air deals

A lot of first-time international
travellers assume their air fare will be the most expensive component of the
holiday. That’s not necessarily so. Fierce competition on air routes to Europe,
for instance, has seen fares drop to the point where return travel, including
taxes, can cost a lot less than a week’s accommodation in a 2-star hotel.

If you’re already locked into a
particular frequent flyer scheme, the choice of airline is not an issue. If
that isn’t the case, the world is your oyster. Fierce competition is seeing
fares plummet to unprecedented levels, and there are plenty of online travel
agents promoting special air deals worldwide almost daily.

The dates you want to fly will
also have a big bearing on the price. Avoid peak-season periods and you stand
to save hundreds of dollars.

Another way of obtaining
worthwhile air deals is to buy your fare in conjunction with land arrangements.
Tour firms, like European coach operators, negotiate very significant
volume-buying discounts with airlines and can offer unbeatable fare levels in
conjunction with their tours.

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Car hire deals

Renting a car for holiday travel
at first glance seems like a fairly straightforward deal. Independent motoring
certainly offers more flexibility than coach or rail travel, enabling you to
stop when and where you like, and make sudden itinerary changes to see
attractions you weren’t originally aware of.

It’s often cheaper than
travelling by train or plane. Four people sharing a car (or campervan) will
usually pay less for a trip than if they travelled the same distance by air,
train or on a coach.

Special deals available in many
countries can also lower costs. France is a good example. Carmakers Renault,
Citroen and Peugeot operate a tax-free leasing system which allows visitors to
drive brand-new vehicles throughout much of Europe for as little as $30 to $40
a day, with the daily rate dropping the longer you keep the vehicle. These
deals also include up to a week’s free driving (more for previous customers)
and discounted pick-up and drop-off charges.

Another way to get a special deal
is to check when car rental firms slash prices in order to move a large number
of vehicles from one part of a country to the other after a period of heavy use
in one region. Seasonal movements in the US between Florida and the populous
northeast states is a good example.

But first-time renters need to be
aware of several things. Large people need large cars, particularly if they
have several suitcases. There’s nothing worse than feeling cramped-up in a car
when you’re travelling for five or six hours a day just to save a few dollars.

Also, many countries have a
right-hand drive traffic system, which can be stressful for older travellers
used to driving on the left. Signs in foreign languages can add to the problem.

Further, though cars can be
rented in most countries, not all countries offer a level of security which
makes it safe for Westerners, in particular, to venture into rural areas.

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Cruise deals

Cruising is frequently described
as the only fully-inclusive holiday, because one price covers transport,
accommodation, entertainment and all meals.

That’s largely true if you don’t
count mandatory tipping which is sometimes, but not always, included in the
fare.

Apart from the remarkable range
of special deals being offered year-round, cruising has at least one other
thing going for it. Passengers have a permanent home, needing to unpack and
re-pack their luggage only once during the entire holiday. And in between,
someone else makes their bed and cleans up after them every day.

Cruises are seen as a bargain buy
also because of last-minute deals. Companies will slash fares by 50% or
60% to fill remaining cabins, knowing that occupants will still be spending on
liquor, souvenirs and casino visits.

Head to sea outside busy periods,
like summer peaks, and you could be holidaying for as little as $100 a day,
particularly in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, or on trans-Atlantic
repositioning voyages, when changes of season force companies to move ships
from Europe to the Americas, or vice versa.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielcheong/3304445510/

Hotel and resort deals

Hotels have two main uses. They
can be CBD or highway overnight shelters for business travellers and tourists
moving from place to place. Or they can be resort-type establishments catering
solely to stay-put holidaymakers.

Get the wrong one, and you could
spoil your holiday. You’d be upset if your special deal saw you stuck in a
hotel filled with rowdy convention delegates when all you wanted was a quiet
break. More and more so-called resort hotels in key tourist areas are trying to
attract conference business to help fill rooms midweek.

Simlarly, that great resort offer
mightn’t look so good if you find yourself surrounded by schoolies, or
footballers on their end-of-season breakout.

There are plenty of websites
offering up-to-the-minute rate information for tens of thousands of hotels and
resorts worldwide, sometimes with better price deals than the hotels themselves
are offering. But these sites don’t take account of special deals which large
hotel chains and even individual properties offer from time to time.

When you use the Internet to
search for a special deal, check out major chains to see if they have current
offers. Also, most tour operators have regular hotel deals, particularly
one-night or two-night stopover packages immediately before the start of a
coach tour, or at the end of a tour.

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Package deals

The term package holiday implies
that you’re getting a fully-inclusive product similar to a cruise. That’s not
necessarily the case. A package will likely consist of transport,
accommodation, some air travel and sightseeing. But you can’t count on it including
all meals. Breakfasts are usually covered, but normally only half of all
evening meals (or fewer) and rarely lunches.

A package, however, does have a
number of advantages over independent travel, because among other things it
offers the security of touring with a group, with local guides and sometimes
with an escort from beginning to end.

It removes the time-consuming
need to search out and book individual components, such as hotels and air
fares. And because package tour firms buy in bulk, they can offer cheaper
pricing than individuals can hope to obtain.

Well-constructed packages will
include the cost of having porters carry your luggage between your hotel
room and your transport, as well as the cost of neccessary visas and
sometimes travel insurance.

Most will also include
sightseeing excursions and admission to key tourist sites, another important
benefit. Large tour groups are usually given special access to popular sites,
avoiding sometimes incredibly long queues at major attractions in Europe, in
particular.

And while main meals aren’t
always covered by the package price, an experienced tour escort or local guide
is able to recommend value-for-money restaurants and souvenir shops.

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Rail deals

It was assumed some years ago
that expansion of air routes and the advent of no-frills
airlines would spell the end of rail travel in many parts of the world.
Quite the contrary. Rail travel has expanded, with faster trips and
better-equipped carriages.

In Europe, for instance, rail is
not only cheaper than air in many cases, it’s often faster. It’s claimed that a
Eurostar journey from the centre of London to the centre of Paris via the
Channel Tunnel takes less time than a flight from London Heathrow to Paris
Charles de Gaulle airports, including time taken to get to and from the
airports from the centre of each city, plus time needed for check-in and
boarding

The French discovered years ago
that it was faster to travel by high-speed TGV train from Paris to Lyon (435km)
by train than by air.

Rail travel doesn’t have the
flexibility of motoring. But it’s seen as an ideal mode of transport for
holidaymakers flitting between various centres, particularly for fast overnight
journeys where en route sightseeing isn’t a must.

Most major tourist destinations
offer both commuter and tourist trains, the latter in many cases including
luxury operations like South Africa’s Blue Train.

Pricing is also an attraction.
Special tourist tickets, like Eurail Pass, offer big year-round savings on commuter
ticket prices, as well as additional seasonal savings.